Why not education for all?
KOSHY MATHEW
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If the concept of `free and compulsory' education is to become a reality, the big losers will be those who depend on cheap labour
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THE UNFORTUNATE decision of the Union government to pass on the Right to Education Bill to the States as a `model Bill' for them to emulate and make suitable enactments takes away more than 200 million less-privileged children from the purview of the constitutional right to basic education.
In 1993, the Supreme Court, in the famous Unnikrishnan case, held that right to education indeed flowed from Article 21 of the Constitution, namely right to life. Therefore, the state was under obligation to provide basic education for all children.
In 2002, Parliament amended the Constitution to make education a fundamental right for children in the age group of 6 to 14 years. Was this necessary, especially in the light of the Supreme Court decision? On the other hand, what the amendment had achieved was exclusion of millions of children in the 0 to 6 age group. The amendment also brought in terms such as "free" and "compulsory education" which were to be "an obligatory function of the state."
Although 15 States and four Union Territories had passed laws making primary education compulsory, a reality check reveals that these enactments have only remained on paper. Various socio-economic and cultural factors coupled with administrative and financial constraints have ensured its non-enforcement. Most of all, the political will on the part of successive governments was lacking.
The UPA government has backtracked on the issue of right to education. In simple terms this is an abdication of its constitutional duty. By doing so, the Central government is not obliged to provide any funds for implementing this very vital fundamental right. It could also result in the non-implementation of certain aspects of the Bill.
The reason cited by the Central government for passing on the Bill to the States is "lack of funds." Is this a credible reason, considering that it was a fundamental right?
Outrageous argument
The Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE) calculated that the implementation of the Bill would have required an additional amount of Rs. 53,500-72,700 crore a year over a six-year period in addition to the Rs. 47,100 crore that was spent on elementary education in 2003-04. This would mean an estimated increase of 6.4 to 8.5 per cent to the Central government's annual budget.
Considering that an education cess of Rs. 5,010 crore was collected in 2004-05 and that only Rs. 2,000 crore was spent on that purpose, and again considering that the government has given a corporate subsidy of Rs. 90,000 crore, through the SEZ Bill, it is evident where the priority lies. It would rather invest in sectors which are likely to yield dividends, and universal elementary education is not on that list.
The decision to shelve the Bill, therefore, comes as a boon for the private school lobby, as the diluted and passed-on `model Bill' has exempted the unaided schools by deleting the crucial clause of reserving 25 per cent of seats to poor children from Class 1.
If the concept of "free and compulsory" education is to become a reality, the big losers will be those who depend on cheap labour — both in the urban and rural set-up.
The concepts of "free" and "compulsory" are not new, for Travancore, now part of Kerala, introduced free primary education in 1904, and added on the compulsory angle in 1945. The vested interests will not permit another Kerala model where adult wages are the highest and where children enjoy certain rights and privileges not found in the neighbouring States.
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